Pretty Birds
by minachandler
Summary: Set during 3x16. Nyssa's escape from the foundry's makeshift prison leaves Laurel shaken, and if possible, she feels even worse than she already does about all the circumstances surrounding her sister's death. But when Felicity joins her, Laurel finds herself once again opening up to her friend - and bringing some of her fondest memories of Sara to the forefront in the process.


Laurel didn't think she would ever get used to the foundry's makeshift prison.

Actually, she didn't think it possible for them to get used to any of it – Oliver, protecting the man responsible for Sara and Tommy's deaths; Thea, looking like she was in more pain than Laurel had ever seen her in; and Nyssa, unconscious behind the bars of the prison itself. Not for the first time, Laurel wondered how on earth Nyssa had even escaped from there to begin with, or where she had gotten the sword that now sat on one of the metal tables next to the monitor.

She'd told Roy to go home, knowing in the back of her mind that he would probably stop by Thea's to check she was okay. It surprised her, therefore, to hear footsteps heading down the foundry's stairs.

Automatically Laurel was on her feet and the blade was in her hand, ready to strike, but a moment later, Laurel recognised Felicity's silhouette as she descended the last step.

"Whoa," Felicity said, looking at the sword in Laurel's hand with apprehension, "it's just me."

"Sorry." She dropped it back onto the table with a clatter. Felicity looked around the foundry, her eyes lingering on Nyssa's unconscious form. "I don't know how, but Nyssa managed to escape." Felicity didn't seem at all surprised at this information, however.

"I know. I programmed the security protocols so I would get an alert if there was a breach," Felicity explained. "I came as soon as I could. Everyone okay?"

"Yeah," Laurel said. "Roy hit her with a tranq dart, and for some reason, Thea was in the room as well, but they're both fine."

Felicity breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Thank God."

"Do you know how she got out?"

Shaking her head, Felicity sat down on her chair near Laurel, putting her purse down on the table. "Not sure. I'll have to look at it properly to see."

Laurel nodded vaguely. Now that the shock of what had happened had worn off, the same hollow feeling settled deep in her bones – the one she felt for months on end every time she lost someone, like another piece of her had gone. And there had been so many times that had happened in the last few years that Laurel had lost count a long time ago.

"Are you okay, Laurel?" Felicity's voice brought Laurel out of her reverie and made her look up.

"I'm fine," she said automatically. Felicity just gave her a look, though, one that clearly said she didn't believe Laurel. "Really," Laurel lied, "I'm all right."

"You can always talk to me," Felicity said softly. All of a sudden, Laurel could feel Felicity's hand on hers. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I do, actually," Laurel replied, and her voice was a little warmer now as she squeezed Felicity's hand back. "It's just… finding out who killed Sara… and why, it's – hard to get my head around. Especially because Ollie wants to protect Merlyn."

"Well, nothing Oliver's done lately has been easy to get my head around," Felicity said, "so really, that makes two of us."

"Why didn't you tell me?" The question was out of Laurel's mouth before she could stop herself. "About Merlyn? I mean, you all knew – you, Dig, Roy, Ollie – but you never said anything. And –" Laurel hesitated for several seconds. "I'm not angry, Felicity. I just…" Then she trailed off, helplessly, not quite knowing what to say – because, truth be told, she had no idea _what_ she was feeling, or asking.

"Probably the same reason you didn't tell your dad about Sara," Felicity said eventually. "Because you wanted to protect him. Oliver wanted to do the same with you. He – probably didn't want you to feel… whatever it is you're feeling now. And as much as I have had enough of Oliver treating everyone he loves like they're made of glass and need to be protected at all times… I also had to respect his wishes, just like I respected yours when I didn't tell your dad about Sara."

Laurel hadn't thought of it like that. But now Felicity had laid it out for her, it made sense. "I get that," she said. "I just… I don't know if I can deal with it, to be honest."

"Deal with what?"

She gestured feebly around her. "All of it. And I don't blame Thea. It wasn't her fault. I blame Merlyn. And I thought I would be happy knowing that he's probably dead or dying right now, but – but then I think about what Tommy would think of me if he knew I'd held a gun to his head less than a day ago. And I think of the fact that day by day, my memories of Sara are starting to fade… and that wishing Merlyn dead or getting caught up in avenging Sara's death is not going to preserve her memory."

"No, it's not," Felicity agreed. "But, I mean, you do that in other ways. As the Canary."

And this time, Laurel smiled. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "It's nice to hear… especially because I know a few people who would probably disagree with you." Felicity smiled back. "I was thinking, though – I think the people on the streets know that I'm not the Canary. As in, they know I'm not Sara."

Felicity nodded. "You do have different weapons. And you don't wear that corset Sara wore – which, by the way, I never really thought would be that easy to fight in, although whenever I asked, she always said the only problem was that she felt cold. Which, you know, still doesn't sound fun."

Laurel chuckled. "True. But, what I meant was… I'm _not_ the Canary. So I was thinking… maybe it was about time I became known as something else. And my dad just kind of said it, offhand, the other day, but he called me the Black Canary."

"Hmm." Felicity considered. "Yeah. I like that. You do rock the whole all black leather look, got to say."

The smile didn't leave Laurel's lips at the compliment. "Thanks."

"Can I ask you something?" Felicity said after a moment, pulling out the chair next to her and gesturing for Laurel to sit down, which Laurel did gratefully.

"Sure."

"Why the canary?"

"My dad bought Sara a canary when she was ten," Laurel explained. "He never let any of us sleep with his chirping, but Sara loved him."

"Oh, right. I always wondered why. And, I mean, I've always thought canaries were pretty birds, but – what is it?" Felicity asked, looking at Laurel questioningly – because at her words, Laurel's smile had only widened. In fact, the muscles around Laurel's jaw were starting to hurt because of how much she was suddenly smiling, even as tears filled her eyes. Felicity's eyes widened in concern at that.

"Sorry," Laurel said hastily, wiping them away quickly. "Just – Sara used to call me that. Pretty-bird."

Tilting her head to one side, Felicity smiled, saying, "Well, it's accurate."

Months ago, Laurel would have been taken aback by Felicity's candour. But they were friends, now, good friends, and Laurel only looked at Felicity warmly at the compliment. "When we were kids, and even when we were older, we used to... we had nicknames for each other."

"What did you call her?"

Immediately, all Laurel could think of was Sara's face if she could see this conversation unfolding, and that only warmed her heart more. "If she were still alive, she probably would kill me for telling you… but I called her Sar-bear."

"Aw," Felicity said, and she was so obviously holding back a laugh. "That's so cute. Pretty-bird and Sar-bear."

"Once, Sara called me pretty-bird in front of Tommy and Oliver," Laurel said, smiling at the memory. "They started calling me it when they wanted to wind me up. And sometimes Ollie would call me pretty-bird when he wanted something. But Sara… she said it whenever we had been apart for a while. Like, if she came home late from school, or a night out, or when she came back from college on the weekend, she would say…" For a moment, Laurel stopped, exhaling softly, lost in the memory. "She would say, 'I missed you, pretty-bird.'"

And then Laurel became aware of a tear trickling down her cheek, but to her surprise, she also felt Felicity's hand, warm on Laurel's arm. "I'm sorry," she said quietly.

"Me too." Suddenly it was too much for Laurel; she got up, moving away and going over to the prison, with the pretext of checking on Nyssa. She was still unconscious, though, which made Laurel feel even more anxious. Trying to ignore this, though, Laurel swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to speak again. "Anyway. In answer to your question – when Sara joined the League… she told me that that was her new name. The Canary. I guess it must have stuck."

"I like the Black Canary," Felicity said, with a smile. "It's different, but you still get to keep the canary part. Works well all round, I think."

Laurel nodded at her, glad to have Felicity's approval, but then her gaze returned to Nyssa. Earlier, Laurel had felt an unexpected surge of warmth towards Nyssa when they had reminisced about Sara together. She found it difficult to believe that Nyssa would have done anything to harm Thea – Merlyn, after all, was the one responsible for Sara's death, not his daughter.

She looked up at Felicity, who was staring at her shoes, apparently deep in thought. "Are you okay, Felicity?"

"Yeah," she assured Laurel.

At this, Laurel returned to her seat, meeting Felicity's eyes. Her expression was hard to read, though. "I meant what I said," Laurel said quietly. "Oliver is definitely lucky to have you as a friend."

Felicity's eyes lit up behind her glasses. "Your sister said the same thing."

Reaching out, Laurel covered Felicity's hand with her own. "But you know what? I am too. And – you said I can always talk to you… and you don't have to, but you know that goes both ways, right?"

To begin with, Felicity seemed to hesitate a little. But then, after a few seconds, she said, "I sort of – ended up in someone's bed tonight. For the first time in about two years."

Laurel wasn't sure if she was supposed to congratulate Felicity on this. "Who's the lucky guy?" she asked instead, and Felicity bit her lip nervously.

"Well, I don't know about how _lucky_ he is, but… Ray Palmer."

There was silence for a moment. "Why do I sense another 'but' coming?" Laurel asked.

Felicity laughed lightly. "I don't know," she said honestly. "But he's my boss… but he's a billionaire who bought the entire chain of crappy tech stores I used to work at just I would work for him… but he's just not –" She broke off, leaving her sentence hanging.

"– just not Oliver?" Laurel finished for her.

Sighing, Felicity didn't even look surprised at Laurel's words. They'd talked about Oliver before, and his tendency to push people away and think he didn't deserve to be happy and the fact that Felicity had borne the brunt of that lately – despite the fact that it was obvious to everyone, not least Laurel herself, that Oliver was in love with Felicity. "That's the thing. Ray's _not_ Oliver. Ray actually listens to me. Which is a lot more than Oliver does these days. If he did, he wouldn't be in Nanda Parbat right now, about to fight Ra's al Ghul to the death _again,_ all to save a man who's the cause of so much of the misery that's happened in his life. Which is why – I don't get why I feel like I've… done something wrong."

"You haven't," Laurel said firmly.

"I know I haven't. Oliver was pretty adamant that we couldn't be together. That was his choice. But – I don't know. It just feels strange. Moving on from… whatever it is we were."

"I know how that feels." Laurel said this more to herself than to Felicity, really, because Felicity had basically just described how Laurel had felt after Tommy had broken up with her and she had slept with Oliver. "Just… go with how you feel. Nothing else."

"You say that like you're speaking from experience."

"Kind of," Laurel admitted. "After… after Ollie and Sara disappeared on the Gambit – I kind of forgot what it was like to feel. Honestly, I didn't think I ever grieved properly for either of them. But then… someone reminded me what it meant to – to be alive."

"Tommy?" Felicity guessed.

"Yeah. And even though he was my cheating dead ex-boyfriend's best friend, being with him… made me feel happier than I had in a long time. I loved him. And I just – he broke things off with me, too. He pushed me away, too, and I thought I was ready to move on and I had, sort of, but…" She trailed off, not quite able to complete her sentence, and then she repeated, "Just go with how you feel."

Felicity smiled. "Right. Thanks." Still on her chair, she moved over to the monitors, which had started beeping, fingers moving quickly over the keyboard. "Police radios in the Glades are lighting up," she said, and then, without so much as skipping a beat: "Pretty-bird, you okay to suit up?"

Smiling, Laurel was already reaching for her jacket.

Months later, Laurel stood outside Ray's office in Palmer Technologies with Oliver and Felicity, her heart feeling lighter than it had in months. They had won. Starling City was safe from the bioweapon that could have taken countless lives as well as the city with it, and the Black Canary had proven – to everyone – to be just as much of a hero as her predecessor by keeping the city safe in the Arrow's absence (and she would continue to do so, if Oliver was serious about taking off with Felicity – and Laurel had a feeling he was).

Laurel turned to Felicity, hugging her.

"I'm in court all day tomorrow," Laurel said, "so if I don't see you before you go… have fun, wherever you decide to go."

Laurel was fairly certain she had never seen Felicity happier than she was at that moment. "Thanks, Laurel." And then Felicity reached forward for another hug, and the words she whispered in Laurel's ear stayed with Laurel long after Felicity had left with Oliver in the elevator.

 _I'll miss you, pretty-bird._


End file.
